Innovation of services: What innovations are being implemented in the hotel sector.

Categories and barriers

Abstract

The objective of this research was to determine what the hotel industry entrepreneur understands by innovation, what innovations have been carried out in the last five years, what are the creative ideas for their implementation in the next five years and, finally, attempts to establish what are the fundamental barriers that hinder the service innovation process. Directors, managers and middle managers of 32 hotel companies in the province of Imbabura, Ecuador were interviewed. The technique was the interview, and the instrument was a semi-structured script. Qualitative data analysis was performed using ATLAS.ti software. The results are presented in categories and subcategories, and show that most entrepreneurs understand the concept of innovation in relation to the types of innovation (service, process, organizational, commercial). The service innovation category had 57 citations divided into three subcategories; process innovation had 27 citations and the same number of subcategories; Organizational innovation had 11 citations with 2 subcategories, and commercial innovation 25 citations with 2 subcategories.